Tuesday, February 10, 2009

There has been an epidemic in New York City of false arrests of gay men under the guise that they were solicited by prostitutes who were really undercover cops. Several adult porn shops and bookstores catering to men have been the target of the New York Police Dept. It is said that an attractive officer is sent to flirt with middle-aged gay men. The allegations are that the officer entices the man to have sex with him, and just before they leave the shop the officer says he wants to pay the man for sexual favors. Without knowing whether the man would agree to payment, the police surround the man and accuse him with attempt to do business with a prostitute.

Christine Quinn the NYC Council Speaker has called these “false arrests.” This raises serious questions as to why the NYPD is targeting gay adult shops, and why they are arresting people under these charges. The LGBT community has faced scrutiny from the police before, including bar raids, and trans-women being accused of prostitution simply for the way they dress and express themselves.

I hope that the men who were recently arrested for "prostitution" at gay venues in NYC know that it may be possible for them to expunge their records at some point in the future. It is particularly important that the men who pleaded guilty without benefit of legal counsel know this, and a clean record in this day of draconian background checks is important for employment and other purposes.

The abuses by Vice are not limited to the Gay Community. Vice has also been on a rampage against straight adult entertainment (strip clubs, lap dance parties) and the fetish world (S&M dungeons, foot fetish parties). It is time to band together and "slice Vice" by initiating a voter referendum to eliminate all funding for Vice. Why cut funding for health care, education and the fire department, when the fascist Vice enforcement Squad is so fully funded?

The worst part about these prostitution raids is the harm caused by Vice Enforcment Squads themselves. Let us not forget that Sean Bell was murdered in 2006 by undercover Vice Police investigating prostitution as he was leaving a Queens strip club. 50 bullets riddled Sean Bell and his two black friends who are now maimed for life, and the City is facing a $50 million dollar civil lawsuit.

The Hot Lap Dance Club on West 38th Street in Manhattan was raided in July 2008 for alleged prostitution activity and for staging live lesbian sex shows. On the night of the Vice Police raid, a large crowd of dancers and customers were terrorized by dozens of Vice police in full riot gear who came charging in brandishing loaded semi-automatic hand guns. By staging a police raid on a busy Thursday night, the Vice Police again displayed reckless indifference to human life. A controversy with a customer during the police raid could have easily resulted in another barrage of police bullets and a significant loss of innocent human lives.

The gay community needs to protect itself before one day innocent gay men or women are murdered by the Vice Police!